obamacare still not affordable for everyone

[orleans]

family of 3, had to leave the house they rented and stayed with a friend for several months (essentially they were homeless), public aid renewal didn't get renewed because all their paperwork was lost in boxes in storage, mom has myriad of health issues, dad drives uber, son lost fast food job because they finally managed to get their own apartment forty five minutes from where the kid worked and he doesn't have a drivers license (and of course has no car) and mom can't drive. they were behind on apartment rent and got an eviction notice already. hopefully they will be able to scrape the rent money together. so...no public aid, no insurance

they tried to apply for obamacare.

$2,000 per month!

[uppityperson]

1. No ObamaCare expanded Medicaid?

No tax credit?

[vsrazdem]

2. I know what you mean.

Take home net pay is 2400 monthly. Mortgage and utilities come to 1800 a month. I tried to sign up for Obama-care and it was going to be 1000 a month for me. I started a new job in July and was told I would be eligible for insurance in November. I work at home, and have sent them 3 emails to sign up for the insurance and hear crickets, so have no insurance. There is no way I can afford 1000 a month. Thank God can sign up for Medicare in September. PS: No tax break for me either. With the new tax plan I will pay about 25 more a year, which I could care less about if it was going for something worthwhile, and not the 1%.

[hedda_foil]

8. Did you stick around the website long enough to find out how much of it the government would pay?

[vsrazdem]

18. I went through the whole process.

Then when I finished, it said choose a policy. All of them were 1000 or more. Was i supposed to choose one and then see what would happen?

[Ms. Toad]

9. At your income level, you should be eligible for subsidies

Since you gave net, rather than gross, the estimate may be off - but with subsidies plans should be around $350/month, with lower copays and coinsurance.

[vsrazdem]

19. My gross income was around 40,000 last year.

At that time I was paying $500 a month for an employee policy, so it dropped my net down to about 2400 a month. When I got laid off I tried to sign up for the Obama plan, but was too expensive.

[Ms. Toad]

23. 40,000 gross (for a single person) is probalby too high for subsidies -

so you're likely being quoted full price.

If you don't have pre-existing conditions, go for short term insurance between now and Medicare. (There may be more than one place to search, but I've had good luck with https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/short-term-health-insurance in the past. Not plugging them specifically - their site is just easy to use. Do a search for "short term health insurance" and you should find other options.) Plugging in my numbers, and pretending medicare was less than a year away, I found plans with 20% coinsurance adn $1000 deductible (capped at $1 million) for 165/month

These are not ACA compliant plans becasue they do not cover any pre-existing conditions - but there are almost no deal-breakers for coverage. But if you're healthy and just need a stopgap plan to ensure against catastrophic loss, they are a good option. I used them (before ACA) when I was not employed and my options were $1500/month insurance and going without (I have a pre-existing condition that freaks out insurance companies - even though the best wisdom at that time was that I was no more likely to have a recurrence than it was to happen in the first place) .

[TlalocW]

3. It's never been affordable for me

Paying the penalty costs about the same as one month of healthcare for me.

TlalocW

[Puzzledtraveller]

7. I am Medicaid caseworker in Ky

Prior to shifting our exchange to Healthcare.gov "we" as in my agency handled all applications. Our system of course would check households against Medicaid income scales then if over it would apply the advanced premium tax credit. Some of these households and individuals would be barely over the income limit for any of the Medicaid programs and we expanded Medicaid, so they would be approved for the tax credit which was various amount depending on several factors. Most of the families and individuals decided not to buy anything, not even the bronze plans with a decent tax credit to help offset their premium cost because they just did not have anything left to spare at all. All my personal opinion and experience so not speaking for anyone but myself but I support universal healthcare. Some say the ACA was the first step in that direction but I never felt that way, and if it was, we are definitely not headed that way now.

[NCTraveler]

17. If the choice is between food, shelter or health insurance...

People are going to go with a bite to eat and a roof over their head.

The push to have healthcare viewed as a right is a righteous fight. This isn’t a choice Americans should have to be making. Anyone, for that matter.

[JimBeard]

4. Is this in ststes like Texas where the Republican governors refused to accept the extra Medicaid?

[orleans]

10. illinois

i don't know about extra medicaid
gov. is republican

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Not For Long Orleans

Rauner is toast! They can't suppress the Chicago vote, and even people who voted for know he has no clue what he's doing
Yeah, we still have the "Madigan's fault" freaks, but you can't win a gubernatorial election with 22% of the vote.

[emulatorloo]

5. Evil Obama. Precious Trump only he can "fix it"

[orleans]

11. you know that wasn't my point, right?

all i'm saying is that it still sucks for some people and isn't the golden ring so many think it is

[NCTraveler]

16. Who here says its a golden ring?

That is out there.

[pnwmom]

6. Was it a red state or a blue state? What kind of public aid were they getting that wasn't renewed?

It seems odd that a renewal would require a lot of old paperwork.

I know someone on Medicaid here and she got everything done online.

[orleans]

12. illinois

and i don't know the details or types of aid
i know they had medicaid and now they don't
the mom has breathing problems and uses an inhaler that costs around $300 or more a month (if she used it the way she is supposed to--which she can't afford to do half the time)

[pnwmom]

13. If there's a Catholic Community Services or a Lutheran Community Services

or similar org in their city, I would suggest that they call them and ask for a referral. They can connect a person to needed services regardless of whether the person has a religious affiliation or not.

I'm trying to understand the $2K a month. Maybe they didn't realize that they (on an Uber income and no assets) should qualify for a substantial subsidy.

If the problem is the lack of records, they can call the IRS and ask for a copy of last year's tax return.

[jpak]

14. Bullshit

You can get a Bronze plan for $0 premium.

If they are that poor - they qualify for Medicaid - not Obamacare.

try again

[orleans]

25. don't "bullshit" me

read the fucking post i wrote again

[NCTraveler]

15. How long has it been out?

The ACA was never affordable for everyone. The exchange isn’t the best option for a majority. It wasn’t designed to be in its initial stage. It was overall a huge plus and many of its features made life better for millions and harmed few. About twelve million people have policies using the exchange. I hope they can find a different option as there are many available.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Something Wrong Here

At 61 and retiring in 373 days, I could COBRA for 1800 a month.
That's essentially a platinum plan for less money
I'd suggest they revisit this
The numbers make no sense.

[orleans]

26. it doesn't make a lot of sense to me either

hopefully they will find the paperwork (tax form or whatever they need to show and couldn't) and will be able to get some help

[NightWatcher]

22. My family has to go without. We cannot swing $1000+ per month for insurance.

Here in Florida we get no state help.

[JimBeard]

24. Same here in Texas. Republicans have wanted to kill it from day one